Consumer Reportstested 118 food packaging products, including bags for French fries and molded fiber bowls for salads.
Nearly a third of the products were found to have high levels of PFAS.
What Is PFAS?
Verywell Health / Photo Illustration by Ellen Lindner / Unsplash
These forever chemicals can leach into food and contaminate water and soil when PFAS-treated packaging is thrown out.
These chemicals linger in the environment forhundreds or thousands of years.
How Did PFAS Wind Up in Food Packaging?
Nathans Famous had products with the highest average levels of PFAS, with Chick-fil-A following close behind.
I understand that that represents a challenge.
Evans explained that the absence of these compounds suggests manufacturers may be replacing certain PFAS with other fluorinated compounds.
Cleaning up contamination will be expensive and take decades or more, if its even possible.
This suggests some food companies have found suitable alternatives to replace the toxic chemicals.
Other fast-food companies, including Wendys and McDonalds, have already banned PFAS from their products.
Starting next year, California willrestrict the allowable PFASin food packaging to less than 100 ppm total organic fluorine.
Evans said she is encouraged to see states and local governments setting allowable PFAS limits.
Still, a couple states isnt enoughwe need to see that on a national level, she said.
Its an impossible burden for consumers, which is why we need the government and industry to act.
Environ Sci Process Impacts.
